A HUGE change of plans, a HUGE change of specialties.

How to begin . . .

Wayne has been planning to enter Pathology since last June. He interviewed through the fall, we've talked about where we're going to live, and it has been a really mellow ride. Until Friday the 13th . . . just kidding. Until Friday the 12th (pretty close).

I was thinking about Wayne all day long. I couldn't stop thinking about him. I kept feeling like he wanted to tell me something, that he wanted to change specialties. It was odd, because he NEVER said or implied anything about wanting to change. His last patient on Friday was there for 2 1/2 hours (which is a VERY long time in clinic). I went to pick him up from the hospital when he was done. As we were driving I said, "Aren't you so glad that you don't have to deal with patients anymore?" He said, "Actually, no, I like patients." Everything came full circle. I looked at him and said, "Wayne, I've been thinking about you all day. I been thinking that you're wanting to switch specialties." He looked at me and the wall fell. He said that after the first week on his Dermatology rotation he loved it (Friday ended his first week on Dermatology). He liked it more than anything he has done including Pathology. He became sick to his stomach. He is not a risk taker at all and changing specialties now would be a huge risk. He said, "Am I crazy?" I really felt at peace about the whole thing. I told him that it was something that he would have to decide and I would support him 100%. The deadline to apply had passed and we thought if this was what he wanted to do he would have to pull out of the match and reapply for next year. He was seriously sick over the whole thing. Not only that, but Dermatology is the most competitive field in medicine. That next day he told me that he was going to email Dean Pearson and tell him everything. He emailed him Saturday morning, Dean Pearson replied a few hours later, and they had a meeting scheduled Monday at 9:00 a.m.

Sunday was full of a lot of prayer. Wayne felt like he needed to pull out of Pathology and do whatever he needed to reapply.

Monday: His meeting with Dean Pearson went well. Dean Pearson said that he was glad Wayne told him now because even though the deadline is passed to apply, you can still contact directors directly and "beg" for an interview. He had to write a new personal statement, get two new letters of recommendations, email five program directors, and email all of the Pathology programs to say that he was pulling out. Dean Pearson gave Wayne the following two days off of his clinical duties because "he had a lot of work to do". I don't think I have ever seen him run around like he did on Monday. The University of Rochester emailed Wayne back and wanted him there on Friday for an interview. VCU in Richmond, wanted to interview him. UVA wanted to interview him and Vanderbilt wanted to interview him. We felt really good. He accepted the interviews to Rochester, VCU and UVA.

So, he will still be entering residency in June, but it will be in Internal Medicine. It was too late to apply for Dermatology this year. It is too competitive to be such a late applicant. The good news is that you have to do a year long "prelim" year when you apply for Dermatology anyway. Internal Medicine will count for that. We thought about doing a prelim year in Internal Medicine and then applying for Dermatology this fall, but then there would be a year in between prelim and Dermatology because Derm interviews two years out. I hope this is making sense. So, the plan is for Wayne to do a full three years of Internal Medicine, apply for Dermatology his second year, and enter Dermatology when he's done with Internal Medicine. The time for him to complete residency will be the same as it would have been for Pathology. We just feel blessed that it all happened now. Who knew that he was going to love Dermatology? He almost dropped the elective many times, but wanted to know more about the skin. Had we waited two more weeks he wouldn't have been able to interview at all for Internal Medicine and we would have to face the decision of doing Pathology or pulling out of the match and reapplying in the fall.

Wayne LOVED his interview at Rochester. We may be New York bound in June.